Bound media, or media which makes use of a binding to hold together one or more pages, is an incredibly valuable means with which to store information. This media can be highly structured and order specific. Books, for instance, typically follow a standard order, usually beginning with a table of contents, and thereafter comprising any number of pages often broken up into subsections or chapters before the book ends. The information within the books typically progress linearly, as reading material generally follows from preceding information and leads into forthcoming information.
However, currently existing bound mediums, including books, journals, or textbooks, cannot address the problem that arises when one or more pages are either mistakenly or purposefully removed from the medium, yielding disjointed information. Traditional binding is designed to keep pages bound within a medium, but is not equipped to allow for reattachment, replacement, or rearrangement of pages should a page disengage from that binding.
To illustrate the problem, imagine a schoolbook. Schoolbooks are often reused for a number of years and utilized by a plethora of students. Understandably, pages may become ripped out or otherwise damaged over the years. Presently, no plausible solution exists to restore the schoolbook to its former condition. It may be possible to purchase individual pages, though these pages cannot simply be integrated into the completed binding. Thus, students may be forced to learn material with crucial information absent from the schoolbook. Alternatively, the school may be forced to purchase an entirely new schoolbook.
Another issue that may arise with a typical bound medium is when an individual such as a student, a business person, or a professional uses or creates such a medium to give a presentation. For example, a professional wishing to bind a presentation to enhance the look or make it appear polished may, after binding, decide to present the information in a different order, but may have to fumble through the bound pages to present in the desired order. The rigid binding may not allow the individual to alter the presentation's order so as to present it in a logical and linear fashion.
One solution to the issue illustrated above may be to use a ringed binder, thus allowing for the order of pages in a presentation to be rearranged. For example, the three rings may be opened at their peak to allow for removal and rearrangement of pages. However, such binders are necessarily large and bulky irrespective of the number of pages they may contain. Rearrangement of pages in a ringed binder is slow and cumbersome, as it requires manually opening the rings, taking out a page, closing the rings, finding the appropriate spot to insert the detached page, opening the rings, and finally reinserting the page. Moreover, pages in a ringed binder are likely to tear over time in the areas where the holes are punched in the pages. Eventually, when such tears reach the edge of the page, the page may no longer be secured by the ringed binder and the binder's utility is severely diminished. Additionally, the requirement that such pages be three-hole punched severely limits the professional applicability of the ringed binding, as books and other similar media are seldom if ever three-hole punched. Instead, they are unadulterated and permanently bound, thus reintroducing the problems first presented.
There is a need in the art to address the issues discussed thus far. It is to these ends that the present invention has been developed, i.e. magnetically bound media allowing for a combination of the unadulterated, professional look of traditional binding, and the customizable and reattachable functionality of ringed binding.